When the aerial apparatus of a fire truck is used, outriggers are extended to provide support for the chassis by widening the support base of the fire truck. When the aerial fire truck arrives on a scene, the driver of the fire truck must position the fire truck so that there are no obstructions to prevent the outriggers from fully extending.
The task of positioning an aerial fire truck at the scene of a fire/emergency involves many factors, including but not limited to the location of the fire/emergency; overhead obstacles such as trees, guide wires, electric wires, telephone wires, overhanging structures; obstacles such as telephone poles, vehicles, garbage dumpsters, buildings, and curbs, sidewalks, and slopes in terrain. Each of these obstacles need to be quickly evaluated by the driver of the aerial fire truck in order to effectively and efficiently position the truck in order to employ the aerial device to attack the fire/emergency.
One of the major complaints of fire fighters is the inability to effectively position the aerial fire truck to ensure that the outrigger will not be obstructed when being extended. It is important that the outriggers be fully extended. If the outrigger cannot be fully extended, the safety features of the aerial device will have to be overridden in order to operate the aerial device. This potentially puts the fire fighters in jeopardy, along with those being rescued.
In order to set up an aerial fire truck at the scene of a fire, the driver of the fire truck must position the truck in such a way as to not obstruct the outward movement of the outriggers. Currently, this is accomplished through experience of the driver visually determining whether an obstruction exists. If the driver was not correct in his judgment, the truck might have to be repositioned after a failed attempt to fully extend the outriggers. This increases the response time of the fire fighters to attack the fire/emergency. In other words, someone's house continues to burn; someone trapped in the building might be exposed to the fire/carbon monoxide/smoke longer; or someone might be swept downstream by the rushing currents because they could not hang on any longer. This could all be due to the environment surrounding the fire/emergency and the false judgment of the driver of the aerial fire truck.
Time is of the essence when emergency services such as fire fighters are called to a fire/emergency. If the aerial fire truck arrives on the scene, stops, and then must be repositioned because the initial stopping point has obstructions preventing the outriggers from fully extending, valuable time is lost which can lead to unnecessary property damage, bodily injury and even death.
Therefore, it would be advantageous for the fire fighters to ensure that the aerial fire truck is positioned at the scene so that there are no obstructions to prevent the outriggers from extending. Further, it would be advantageous to have a system and method for ensuring that obstructions do not prevent the outriggers from being extended thereby preventing valuable time from being wasted due to repositioning the aerial fire truck.